Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport claims that, the defending MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo will be the highest paid rider on the grid earning 25 million Euros over the two-years at Ducati.

The Ducati move initially confirmed by Yamaha factor outfit, they announced the separation from Lorenzo at the end of the season (though without announcing his replacement).

After a few minutes the coming of the release of the Ducati “Ducati announces that it has reached an agreement with Jorge Lorenzo whereby the Spaniard will compete in the MotoGP World Championship in 2017 and 2018 on the Ducati Desmosedici Ducati GP Team.”

In an interview with Sky Italia, Ducati sporting director Paolo Ciabatti said that getting the three-time MotoGP champion to join them was not difficult and an agreement was finalized promptly.

“I would say no,” said Ciabatti when asked if it was difficult to get Lorenzo away from Yamaha. “Clearly, this year all the contracts of the top riders were expiring, and with Lorenzo, there had been a tentative approach some time ago.

“Like in all these cases, it was quite a complex negotiation process, but we managed to then reach an agreement fairly quickly,” told Sky Italia.

“I believe in the strength of our bike, which this year has demonstrated itself to be very competitive, paving the way for this agreement.”